What Happens To Your Body In The First 24 Hours After Giving Birth?

Child birth is the dream moment that every expecting mother eagerly waits for. If it is your first pregnancy, you might be dreaming about how will it feel after delivering the baby. In the initial few hours of the delivery, a woman goes through various changes on physical, and emotional levels. In this article we will learn about all those things that can happen after you deliver baby in hospital.

Things that occurs within 24 hours after delivering the baby

In case of a normal delivery, you will be in the birth room for around two hours in the birth room. Later, you will be shifted to post-natal ward. During this time, you will perform some important tasks, eat food and take shower.

Establishing a bond with the baby: The first and the most beautiful thing that will happen is that you will hold the baby in your arms for the first time. You will make skin to skin contact with him/her, and that is when the bond starts to establish between the mother and the baby. You will be extremely happy and feel on the top of the world.

Examination of vaginal tears: Your doctor will examine the vaginal wall, and perineum to find out any tears in those areas. On finding any ruptures, they will repair it with stitches.

Examination of the health of your baby: After your inspection, your doctor will inspect your baby by checking his blood pressure, pulse loss of vaginal blood, as well as the firmness of the fundus.

Breastfeeding will begin: The first milk that is released from the breast is called as colostrum. This milk is thick in consistency, and is yellowish in color. It is highly nutritious milk, and helps in building up the immunity power of the baby. Your doctor will advise you to feed this milk to your baby quickly after birth.

Weakness: Whether you have a normal delivery, or a C-section delivery, you are going to expect weakness in the body. Women in the latter category will experience more weakness, coupled with extreme abdominal swelling due to the incision.

Roller Coaster of Emotions: You might be feeling intense on emotional, and physical levels and may go through a series of emotions during the initial 24 hours. Your physical body is in process of recuperating from a massive physical strain, and your mind is adapting to motherhood. After struggling through the extremely painful phase of delivery, you might feel lack of energy, overwhelming, emotionally drained, shedding tears, getting oversentimental, mood swings, overjoyed or a combination of all of these.

Bleeding: You can observe vaginal bleed within twenty-four hours of delivering the baby. This type of bleeding is often termed as ‘lochia’. In this condition you may pass some lumps of blood via urination.

Swollen perineum: You would notice swelling in the perineum region. This can be treated by taking rest, applying ice, wearing firm-fitting underwear and performing a few pelvic floor exercises for initial few days of delivery. Take medical assistance, if it causing you excruciating pain.

Round post baby belly: Your belly will still be round even after delivering the baby. This is because the abdominal muscles, uterus, and skin will remain in the stretched state for few more weeks until they shrink to their original size after birth.

Weight reduction: Right after you deliver the baby, you would lose around ten to thirteen pounds of body weight that comprise of baby’s weight, amniotic fluid, and placenta.

Night sweats: Another common observation after delivery is night sweat. It can interfere with your sleep. Keeping a towel on the pillow, and changing it whenever needed is a good way to deal with this discomforting situation.

Pelvic cramps: You can experience postpartum contractions at the time of breastfeeding the baby. These contractions arise due to synthesis of oxytocin hormone in the body.

Soreness: Women who have given vaginal birth will notice stretched, bruised, ruptured, or swollen perineum. This is the region that lies between the vagina, and the rectum. The unbearable pain you experience due to it will make it uncomfortable to sit down.

Women who have a C-section delivery, will experience soreness after major abdominal surgery. This is seen in the area that surrounds the incision. It is accompanied by nausea, exhaustion, and constipation.

Conclusion

You may think that after delivering baby, things will turn to normal. This is not true. It goes on for a few weeks after delivery the baby. This is because your body needs time to recover and adapt itself to the new role of mother. By being mentally prepared in advance, will help you deal with the phase efficiently.